Nico di Angelo and the Fae: War of Shadows
by archaicDefiance
Summary: Waking up in a school infirmary was definitely not what Nico di Angelo was expecting after falling off the Argo II. Now, cut off from his friends, Nico has to deal with demons, girls and an academy made specifically to fight against monsters unknown to any pantheon. Nico's got a huge year ahead of him, and grades are the least of his worries... Lucky for him, he's got the Fae.
1. Fighting the Loincloths

**Nico di Angelo and the Fae: War of Shadows  
**

**I: Fighting the Loincloths  
**

You've probably picked up this book looking for another story revolving around Perseus Jackson, the Slayer of Kronos and Savior of Olympus, or of Jason Grace, the Slayer of Krios and Praetor of the Twelfth Legion.

Well you're not getting any of that.

I am Nico di Angelo, the Son of Hades, Ghost King and the Ambassador of Pluto. Even though half of those titles are self-proclaimed, they make sense. But I'll explain that later.

For now, you've probably read the summary of this book. And you should know by now how this all started.

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On board the Argo II, it was normally the same. Gloomy, sad and even frightening. I'd been told of what had happened over the voyage to Rome. Possessing spirits, pirates, even giant shrimp. We had to be prepared, most of the time.

And yet, nothing prepared us for the Fae.

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I woke up to explosions, friends yelling and swords clashing. I drowsily pushed myself out of bed (I'd fallen asleep fully-clothed, not like I have anything to sleep in anyway), grabbing my skull ring off the bedside table and sliding it onto my right index finger. The iron ring had recently been enchanted to enter a different form, Ultor, my Stygian Iron sword.

I burst out onto the deck into a scene of pure chaos. Winged creatures flew around the Argo II's hull, blasting her with explosives. The bronze plating protected the interior, yet the crew was left unprotected as they manned the ship's guns, trying to shoot the unknown creatures from the sky.

The more I looked at them, the more I realized they seemed like fairies. They had pixie wings, for Zeus' sake. What kind of monster has pixie wings? When I looked closer, I could see their skin was ash gray, and covered in scars and burns. They had claws rather than fingertips and their mouths were full of shark-like teeth, which I was pretty sure could chomp through one of us in one bite. I knew they could when one chomped off a section of the railing.

The worst part was that they only wore loincloths.

"Nico, get over here!" I shook myself out of staring and assessed the situation. Leo struggled to keep control of the ship while Jason stood at the prow of the vessel, sword out and looking _very _heroic as he attempted to call down lightning upon the pixies that invaded us. A storm brewed around the Argo II as his power was shown in this battle. We all knew he couldn't keep it up forever, and it somehow wasn't enough. No matter how many Jason brought down, more would come.

Piper and Hazel worked the ballistae, shooting most of the monsters down before they could get too close.

Frank was an archer. You can guess what he was doing.

Hedge was unconscious.

Again.

No surprise there.

"They broke through!" Jason cried. True to his words, one of them flew at me.

My demigod instinct kicked in, prompting me to grip the sword tight and slice the thing in two.

My sword wasn't of Greek origin, rather, based off a simple arming sword from the Italian Renaissance. The blade was double-edged and about the length of my arm, with a simple, but effective hilt and guard that I designed to hook an enemy's blade in. The pommel was a small, metal spike and the grip was wrapped in leather. As a symbol of being Hades' accepted son, the hilt was made more intricate, decorative, designed as a skull with ruby eyes. A two-pronged staff was engraved in gold onto the flat of the blade.

I named it "Ultor" because of the reason I foraged it, to avenge Bianca.

Ultor was light, easy for me to swing. I made precise movements, my blade entering flesh for merely a second before rushing to meet another opponent. Each slash hit its mark, cutting through a throat, eye, wrist or other joint, sometimes even at the diaphragm. All of them were meant to either kill, wound, or even sever.

I flicked the blood off my blade, taking a moment to assess the battlefield.

Jason had resorted to his _gladius_, cutting through the unknown creatures in a manner similar to my style, with Piper by his side, slashing vital points in their systems. I wasn't sure how she managed to hack with that much precision against these things, but I was grateful she did.

Hazel rapidly swung her _spatha _back and forth. Without Arion to ride, she was slightly clumsier, until Jason had shown and taught her how the cavalry sword was eventually used in gladiator combat. She tried her best to keep anything off of Hedge.

He was still out cold, his furry butt up in the air.

Frank went bear on anything that got too close to Leo, who frantically sprinted between his control systems, letting out a long stream of curses.

With those two being the closest, I slowly managed to fight my way toward them. "How did this happen, where'd they come from?!"

"I don't know, man!" Leo stopped to incinerate a demon that got too close to him. "One second, the skies are clear, the next, we're covered in these things!"

There were clearly too many of them to kill, and the Argo II wasn't swift enough to outrun them. "Maybe they're only territorial, just keep flying in one general direction, Frank," He swatted a Pixie out of the air. "Err… keep doing what you're doing."

I left them and charged into the melee.

The entire crew saw my fighting style for the first time that day. It was vicious and deadly, and I left nothing standing. How else do you think I managed to fight in the battle of Manhattan and come out unscathed?

I relied on spontaneous attacks before the second Titan War. Focusing on the element of surprise, I managed to outmaneuver several of my opponents during the battle. It took me a while to realize the plate armor my father supplied me with slowed me down. Eventually, I gave it up.

I'd learned of my Italian heritage during that war, and from that point on, I'd began to study the Italian School of Swordplay. I'd focused on learning from the author of the _Fior di Battalgia_ (Flower of Battle), Fiore de Liberi. He'd practiced the art of combat during the early Renaissance. A son of Athena. He taught me several things, and, long story short, I learned how to fight with every weapon and style in the Italian armories.

Anyway, back to the fight. Quickly, the things (I decided to nickname them "Pixies" at this exact moment) began to see me as the greatest threat, and focused their attacks on me. It got frustrating, I mean, I might have been skilled back then, but I couldn't exactly take on, like, twelve flying, clawed, half-naked _things _at once. Normally, if we were on the ground, I could've shot spears of obsidian from the ground to impale them all. Unfortunately, we were on a ship in midair.

Not much ground for me to use.

With less Pixies focusing on the rest of the crew, they were able to dispatch them quickly. A few shocks, stabs and slashes later, we were in the clear.

Oh, and Hedge woke up.

"Augh, ah… v-villains! FEAR ME!" He cried out, brandishing his club as he got to his feet. Err… hooves. "Huh…?" He suddenly realized something as his grogginess wore off. "You cupcakes didn't leave any for me?"

"Sorry, Coach. Opportunity presented itself."

"You could've at _least _kept _some _of them alive for me!"

I would've come up with a sarcastic reply, believe me, I would. But then we heard the sea beneath us gurgling. No one needed a word of warning. Except maybe Hedge. Yeah, he'd throw caution to the wind.

Without warning, a dragon, winged and covered in black scales, blasted out from under the water's surface. It was huge and loud enough to have put Festus to shame.

I could almost sense everyone's fear rising.

When it roared, that thing had enough force to send us all flying back. Most of us collided with objects, crates, ballistae, the mast, the railing.

I wasn't so lucky. I flew right through the broken section of the railing. I reached out and clawed for the side of the ship, looking for _anything _to latch on to.

Unfortunately for me, there was none. I gave up as I saw the bottom of the Argo II, letting myself go limp. It was a pretty far drop, and, being the son of Hades, I'm pretty sure I would go _splat_ as soon as I hit the surface.

_Fortunately _though…

I never did.

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I was limp, blood rushing to the back of my head, and I felt supported.

Yeah. Definitely lying down. White clouded my vision as I opened my eyes, and I realized I was in an infirmary.

Not the _Argo II_'s, though. Speaking of which, I had no idea where in my father's name I was.

"You're awake." I turned my head to look at the kid at my side. He sat in a white chair by the bedside. The guy was about a year older than me, his dark hair coming down over one of his silvery eyes. He wore what looked like a school uniform's jacket; black, buttoned-up with a golden strap wrapped around the left arm with the Roman numeral "III."

And strapped to the back of his waist was what looked like a .50 caliber double-barreled revolver made completely out of iron and silver.

_Well. This is new._

* * *

**AD: Okay, so, my new fanfic. Finally getting it posted c: **

**AD: Anyways, it follows, yet another plot of my completely original idea. It'll intertwine with the plot line of the House of Hades (starting when it comes out.) **

**AD: Everything up until then will be of my ideas. **

**AD: My own, complicated or annoyingly simple ideas.**

**AD: Also, expect a crossover. ;) **

**AD: Ya'll better review! :3  
**

**AD: If you don't I will hunt you down and draw on your face as you sleep.**


	2. Author's Note: Important

Okay, so, not a chapter, sorry. Well, I got my hands on a copy of "The House of Hades" a while ago, and now I'm working on coming up with a plot and an explanation for how the Seven made the journey without Nico.

(Btw, one of my pet peeves is when people say "Nico" is short for "Nicholas." He's Italian. I'm pretty sure it'd stand for "Nicolo" or just "Nico.")

So, if you have any ideas, go ahead and tell me.

If you want a little more info on the story, the Fae academy is based off an idea I had a while ago for a totally original. If you have a tumblr account, or you know of the site, check the blog "anarchicdeviant" for the thing. There may be updates, and use my current username (avengefuldemigod) as a URL for my fanon works, if I ever decide to post anything relating to this there.

Hah, okay, AN's over.

The next chapter may be up soon, but it's likely to be a filler. Sorry.

~AD


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